June 11, 2007

What’s in a name?

Most of you are probably thinking, “‘Flowers and Pancakes?’ Who names their column ‘Flowers and Pancakes?’”

The name came to me after everyone under the sun, and some of their dogs, tried to help me come up with ideas for this column.

Whenever I told someone that I was going to have my own column, they had to give me their input on what they thought this should be about. Here are a couple of the more ridiculous ones. Shockingly, both of these came from my brothers.

One suggested that I call it “Loud Mouth Lindsay Laments.” The name made me laugh, but I doubt that anyone would want to squint at a section of tiny newsprint just to see what I’m whining about for the week.

My other brother was not much more help and thought that this column should be dedicated to recent Sasquatch (big foot) sightings in Winsted for its entire duration.

I figured that this would definitely be amusing but also needlessly complicated. I would have to come up with phony witnesses and interviews and I just don’t have that kind of time.

However, if I’m feeling ambitious, that might be a fun idea to toy around with for one week.

There were more practical requests too. After all, not everyone is quite as wonderfully eccentric as my brothers.

Several people told me I should write about college life. I thought this was a great suggestion and would make for fascinating reading, I assure you. But then I started to think about the idea realistically.

My first year of college was a lot of fun and I would love to write about every single part of it. Unfortunately, a lot of my favorite stories are a little too “PG-13” for a “G” rated newspaper.

Surprisingly, my mother who also writes for the Herald Journal, only offered me one small suggestion on the matter: “Don’t write about me.” Or maybe it was an order. . .

Of course, I didn’t listen to anyone. Instead of coming up with something extremely clever, completely hilarious, particularly deep, or even something that makes sense, I chose a small portion of a conversation that took place months ago.

The title actually comes from a friend of mine who was trying to cheer me up. She told me to “think of happy things like flowers and. . . pancakes!” It was such a random combination. I couldn’t help smiling.

Likewise, this column will be more or less about random things that make me happy. It could be flowers, pancakes or maybe even a Sasquatch sighting or two.

It completely depends upon whatever I feel like writing about. That is a scary thought. Welcome to the twisted workings of my mind. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.